Armor Interiors GB

I totally agree with Treadwell.

hiya jthursten--man let me ask you a question-- isn't it a great feeling of satisfaction to complete such a cool looking build and then have the bonus of being able to pop the top off and get a good eyeful of the interior?--- you can almost get the feeling of the cramped quarters and a better understanding of the day to day combat life of the soldiers-- not to mention the actual mechanical aspects of the interior itself---top notch job my friend

--------tread--

Thanks, guys!

Waikong, yeah, that's a good point. If I get some time this week, I'll look into narrowing the washes. I thin that would make a big difference. Also, I'm not happy with how semi-gloss it turned out, overall. Must have been something wrong with my application of the dullcote, so that's something else I need to look at. So, instead of declaring it finished, I'm gonna call it 95% at this point.

The numbers are Tamiya decals, set in Solv-a-Set with a coat of Future.

DONE!!! WOO HOO!!!

Okay, so here are a few pics of my Tamiya PzIV H, with the Tank Workshop interior, which I finally completed over the weekend.

The pics were taken while the final coat of Testors dullcote was drying, so there;s still some glossy glare on the plastic, but that's gone now.

Interior

Closed up

A few things worth pointing out:

I thought the interior is an excellent kit, if a bit complex in the construction of the turret. But its instructions were horrible, virtually unusable - some items are just kinda stuck wherever I imagined they should go.

I did a pretty poor job of painting the interior. Next time, I'll explore more options, with regards to pre-painting some parts before installing them, etc.

I wanted to depict a generic PzIV at Normandy or thereabouts, but I didn't want to declare a specific unit. I didn't like the idea of someone coming back and pointing out that that particular division only had PzIVs that were painted this way or that, etc. So, I left off any unit designations. I did, however, ensure that I was building a tank that would be generally representative of the PzIV's that would have been tooling around northern France and Belgium in mid-1944.

I did some figs for it, but they look horrible, so I omitted them for these pics.

Any comments, questions or criticisms are absolutely welcome. I'll be working on updating my build blog whenever I get a chance.

~Jerry

Brews wrote:

From the all Japan Hobby show: Bengal Tiger

THAT IS SICK!!!  n the picture after it.... CLEAR HULL!!!  if it's not too much trouble, can you also post this on the armor forum?  I don't want to steal the info by reposting it.

From the all Japan Hobby show:

Bengal Tiger

Once more I must apologize for my lack of pics, but I think I can take some tonight. Here's what's going on:

This is turning out to be rather acceptable-looking panzer IV H. Well worn and battle-weary, she's painted in overal dunkelgelb. I don't think I'll give her any additional camo, save a few sprigs of foliage if I can find the right materials to replicate it.

The interior is complete, although I've left the engine and compartment for another time ($$). Zimmerit is complete. This being an Ausf. H, she has Zimm on the noseplate and front glacis, the front of the turret and the recoil housing for the main gun, and the front & sides of the superstructure going all the way back. She has schurzen rails, although a few panels will be missing, and turret schurzen although the rear part of that will be missing as well.

All hatches to the turret and driver's/radioguy's compartments will be open to show the interior. I dirtied up the interior quite a bit, as if she's been in combat for a long time without a good cleaning. I decided against figures inside, as they would have detracted from the show-off-ability of the interior.

I'm leaving the turret roof removable. If that makes you wonder how I'm doing so, with turret schurzen in place, I can only leave the brackets attached to the turret roof. So when I remove the roof, the schurzen come with it.

Yesterday I was able to finally paint the roadwheels (I do them all by hand with a 00 brush), and apply the turret numbers (solid blue 104, no outline) to the turret schurzen on the sides and the rommelkiste on the back. Next step is the return rollers, and then it's back into the land of Fruils I go. I want to give the tracks a little extra sag to go along with the beat-up look of this tank.

Again, sorry no pics right now. I'll try to take some tonight and post them tomorrow.

I've been able to post a few pics and stuff in my build blog: http://panzerpantry.blogspot.com/.

The Panzer IV Ausf. H is coming along nicely, if slowly. I anticipate making more progress now, though. The inerior is done, except for finishing up the paint inside the turret, and I'm going to leave myself the option of intallying an engine & compartment later (but not right at the moment). Next is the running gear (no idea why I didn't do that first, like normal).

Here's a teaser pic:

Haven't been able to take pics lately, as the digi has been on the fritz. But here's a run-down of what I've been up to in the Panzer Pantry:

Laid down hull wiring and conduits, basically just put them where I thought they'd look cool. Completed the lower fighting compartment, floor supports, hull supports, fuel and ammo stowage within the lower hull. Installed the radios and bow machine gun, driver's pedals and steering levers. Installed the tranny, universal joints and drive shaft, and "wired in" the instrument panel that sits atop the tranny, and then installed the driver's and MG/radioguy's seats.

I've painted the lower hull interior (in the fighting compartment, not the engine compartment) in Polly Scale "Doped Linen" (I got a lot of it and thought I should use it. It actually looks just about right, if a little on the yellowish side).The fighting compartment floor plate should be either primer-red or some industrial color like blue-green, or else the same off-white as the upper interior. I painted mine primer-red (Tamiya Hull Red, lightened a little with Tamiya Buff). The Tank Workshop part is too big for the tank, and will bow badly when installed. I cut mine into quarters and  trimmed each piece, then stuck it back together once it was in place, which eliminated the bow.

I've decided to use just about all of the PE stuff after all. In fact, now that I'm into it, I'm using almost all of the Lion Roar kit and quite a bit from the Aber kit as well. So all the little tool stowage and misc. stuff mounted to the fenders is almost done, including the air cleaners that are evidently endemic to Ausf. H's.

The hull zimm has been added. I used the Cav set, touched up around the edges with some chipping, and a little additional putty in a few spots.

Next is the turret - I'll probably be starting on that here in the next couple of days. And I'll post pics as soon as I can.

Thanks Tread! I'm starting to get my builds mixed up, so I might go ahead and "scale back" a couple of my projects.

So I don't have any new pics ready yet, But I was able to make some progress (a little) over the weekend. I've got the steering brakes linked into the transmission, and the transmission in place and ready for the drive shaft to be installed. The gap in the ammo storage lockers that was evident in one of the pics has been fixed, and the positioning problem I was having with the rear bulkhead (which I didn't mention but was clear in the pic) turned out to be a positioning feaux pas on my part - easy remedy.

I've also got about half of the Zimmerit on, which is looking pretty cool. I'm just using white glue to adhere the Cav resin Zimm, which works well but needs to be closely monitored, as it dries funny in this humidity. Might need to switch to either a CA or 2-part when it's ready for the edges to be touched up.

I'm not going to use most of the Lion Roar and Aber PE that I got for this kit, as frankly, the Tamiya kit doesn't need it. Also, it does't really need the TMD backdate set (to Ausf. G), because the idea was to create a very early-model Ausf. H, which is well represented by the kit OOB. I will still replace all of the tool clamps, tie-downs, straps, small hooks, etc. with PE parts. My favorite for most of those is Aber.

Next step is to lay down some hull wiring and conduits, and install the pedals, radios & radio racks, and driver's instruments.

jthurston!-- love the panzer pantry blog-- you sure got your hands full with those builds--tiger work is awsome looking!

outlands-- grab the tag if you you want --daimler scout car with p.e. definately qualifies!

-- tread

OK, so here's my Panzer IV Ausf. H progress so far. You can go to http://www.panzerpantry.blogspot.com/ for updates.

I just opened the box last night, after I got tired of waiting for the Zimm on my Tiger I to become available. 

So I figured I'd start with the Panzer IV interior. As has been my experience thus far, the Tank Workshop interior is a superb mold with dismal instructions. I have more pics coming in the next few days, but here's a teaser pic until then:

Treadwell, that's one awesome build!

Can I sign up for this one? I'll do a Tamiya Pz IV H at Normandy (but it's gonna have some Ausf. G parts from a TMD backdate), with a Tank Workshop (I think) fighting compartment and a Verlinden engine & compartment. Gonna have other stuff too, like Cavalier zimmerit, an Aber barrel and Friul tracks.

I'm working on a dio, eventually, that will have one Tiger I and two Panzer IVs, and a bunch of other stuff (motorcycles, kubelwagens, etc). The Tiger is in-process for the Liberation of Western Europe build, but after that I can tackle the Pz IV.

Yup, I'm still chuggin along with the tiger, the messed up paint really set me back.

I'm glad someone's finished! It looks great!

well, this  gb build kinda has crapped out-interior work is tough- montana cowboy and terry, I hope to see you guys finish-- especially you, terry if you read this-- it was some of your early stuff that originally peeked my interest in trump's 1/16 t-34- cowboy-your tiger is awsome hope you 'git 'er done'!-here are a few 'finished shots' of my work-- most of what I have done is in the regular armor forum-- thanks guys-- tread

3 more pics--- gittin 'er done!

waikong-- glad to have you aboard!-- i will look forward to your t-34  1/48 posts-- the hobby boss kit looks verrrry interesting!!--- tread